Louis Plamondon is now the longest continuously serving Member of Parliament in Canadian history, with his colleagues in the House of Commons honouring him for his record of service.
The 82-year-old served his 15,059th consecutive day as an MP on Wednesday, after surpassing former prime minister Wilfrid Laurier’s record for continuous service earlier in the week. (While Laurier accrued more overall time in the House — a total of 16,411 days — he briefly lost his seat in 1877, interrupting his record of unbroken service.)
“I don’t know if it’s a good sign for the future of our country if a sovereignist has broken the record of as great a Canadian as Wilfred Laurier,” Liberal MP Marc Miller said Wednesday in joking tribute to Blanchet.
“I can almost forgive him for founding the Bloc Québécois,” Miller said, speaking in French. “After all, he was leaving the Conservative Party.”
Plamondon founded the Bloc Québécois in 1990, leaving the Progressive Conservative caucus he had served in since 1984 when he unseated the Liberal incumbent Jean-Louis Leduc in Richelieu.
Through 13 consecutive elections, Plamondon has maintained the same seat — now named Bécancour-Nicolet-Saurel-Alnôbak, a riding along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River facing Trois-Rivières.
“He’s almost a Céline Dion of Parliament,” Bloc Québécois Leader Yves François Blanchet said of Plamondon.
“He really should be disqualified from achieving further records just to make room for someone else,” Blanchet joked, speaking in French.
After colleagues paid tribute to his gregarious nature and long record of service, Plamondon said they had been “too generous” in their praise, insisting that serving his constituents was “an honour that exceeds the capacity of words to describe.”
He continued: “I have never forgotten that behind every debate, every vote, every speech, there is a farmer who gets up before dawn, a single mom who manages to achieve miracles, an entrepreneur who risks everything to create something, a young person who wants a prouder, fairer, greener nation and a senior who hopes for what they deserve after a long life of hard work.”
No plans to retire
The dean of the House — the sitting member with the longest unbroken record of service — Plamondon says he has no plans to retire and intends to contest the next election, assuming he remains in good health.
“I’m hooked,” he told Radio-Canada in a recent interview. “It’s a bit like a drug. For some people it’s alcohol or weed, for others it’s sports. But for me, it’s … politics.”
The octogenarian concedes that his 41 years in Parliament under seven prime ministers have taken a toll on his personal life.
“Politics isolates. You have a lot of acquaintances, but you lose your friends because you no longer have the time to take care of them,” he said.
Plamondon’s personal isolation deepened recently, following the death of his wife of nearly 35 years, Manon St-Germain, at the age of 67 in September. His former partner would have wanted him to continue, he believes.
“She would say to me: ‘Don’t give up, because I don’t know what you’re going to do,’” he said.
Despite this, Plamondon said he feels lonely at times.
“There are Saturday nights when I’ll shake 300 hands. When I get home at 10 p.m., I’ll say, ‘Yeah, I’d like to have a coffee with someone.’ I don’t know who to call,” he said.
But the gladhanding is the secret to his political longevity, Plamondon believes.
“My philosophy is that if I talk to 10 people every day for five days, that makes 50 per week, that makes 2,500 per year and that makes 10,000 over four years,” he said.
The mathematics of keeping in touch with his constituents extends into his weekend schedule, where he said he aims to attend up to 10 events, from pétanque tournaments to news conferences.
“Right now, I’m doing the rounds of the Christmas fairs. I have 14 scheduled,” he said.
Separatist as Speaker
Among the highlights of his long career, Plamondon has served as the Bloc’s House leader, its caucus chair and in 2023 the interim Speaker of the House for six days, after Liberal MP Anthony Rota resigned over honouring a man who fought for the Nazis as a “Canadian hero” in the House.
Plamondon told Radio-Canada he was amused by the eyebrows raised over a staunch Quebec separatist serving as Speaker.
“The thing is, even federalists like this guy,” Blanchet said during his tribute in the House.
“The only way Canada will get rid of this tenacious MP is to grant Quebec independence,” Blanchet said to applause from his colleagues.
